Melanin Wars Read online

  Melanin

  Wars

  Book One in the Melanin Wars series

  Taquila Thompson

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  MELANIN WARS

  First edition. February 25, 2019.

  Copyright © 2019 Taquila Thompson.

  Written by Taquila Thompson.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  The Beginning of The End

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Also By Taquila Thompson

  The Beginning of The End

  It was a New World Order. Nothing was as it seemed anymore. All we ever did was hide and make sure that we didn’t end up in front of them, the white demons. Because, here in this time being melanin was a crime. And if you had one drop in you, just one, you were no good to this new society. You would either be experimented on and your mind would be bent or you would be killed. They wanted to create a “pure” race. A race that they deemed superior and who was above and beyond any other race, but without this melanin magic that we have, their race would be anything but. That’s why they hunted us like animals. They wanted to steal our juice. To make sure that they are the supreme beings in this world. Too bad for them that not all of us were willing to bend and conform to their ways. We wanted to fight for our rights and were tired of having to live in their shadows.

  With few trees and barely any grass left after what we referred to as “the end” hiding places were scarce and subject to old abandoned houses and warehouses. But we made it work. We had to do what we had to do. With all of our parents dead or stuck in a lab being experimented on somewhere, we had no choice but to try and make it on our own. And that’s what we have been doing for the past five years. We survived this long so we knew we could survive a little longer. Just in case you were wondering who we were, we are the “Melanin Underground Warriors.” Also known as Tyleah, Ahshay, Breyrian, and Tysim. I’m Tysim and I’m the leader of the group. My dad was originally the leader but once he got captured and taken away to who knows where that left me in charge. We lost most of the warriors then, most of them giving up hope or surrendering but that would never be us. We would fight to the death. There was no other way around it.

  Ahshay, little sister, was the most fiercest out of the group. She hid in the closet as she watched the whipipo kill our mom in cold blood. When they heard her they came around to try and capture her but she stabbed one in the side of the neck and killed him and then escaped out of the side door. Some say that it was pure luck that she got out of there alive, but I don’t think it was luck at all. She’s always had the strength of warrior and the heart of a lion. And if you ever touched anyone that she cared about, then be prepared to face her wrath. Tyleah was a girl that we picked up while we were hiding out. She was hiding in one of the abandoned buildings that we were also in at the time. She told us that her parents were killed as soon as the end started and left her stranded by herself since she had no siblings. She had been surviving on her own ever since the tragedy, until she joined our merry little crew just a few months ago. Breyrian was my childhood friend. Both of his parents had been captured. He had tried to break into whipipo headquarters but he almost lost his life by doing so because he was being so reckless. He was blinded by rage and sorrow that he wouldn’t listen to what anyone had to say. After a while he gave up and joined our crew to. We’re not high in numbers because even in a time like this melanins find it hard to stand together but we recruit when we can but the life just becomes too much for people sometimes and they quit and eventually accept death. That will never be me. Or my small crew. We would always remain warriors. There was no other option.

  Chapter 1

  “Tysim, we are all out of water and food. We will need to re-up today,” said Ahshay as she turned over a jug to show that nothing was in it.

  I sighed in frustration. Today wasn’t a day that we were supposed to go out and get supplies, but I knew that we needed to or we would be dead. There was no way that we would be able to make it a day in all of this heat with no water. It was impossible. Problem was the only drinkable water was about ten miles away and today was the day whipipo did their inspections to see if any of us were hiding out in the abandoned buildings. We had to switch the places we lived every week because if we didn’t...then well by now you should know the rest. “Do you want to risk heading out for water on today? I could go by myself, so as not to risk all of us getting caught.”

  “We don’t really have a choice,” replied Ahshay. “We need water and the food supply is pretty low to. We’re going to have to re-up despite the consequences. And you know the drill Ty, we either travel altogether or not at all.”

  “I thought we had enough to last for another day like we always do, what happened?” I asked a little confused. We never made mistakes or were careless like this. Everything had to be planned as perfectly as possible or we ran the risk of exposing ourselves and getting captured..

  “Well somebody,” Ahshay paused and rolled her her eyes at Breyrian “acted like they were dying of thirst the other day and drank more than he was supposed to.”

  I rubbed my hand across my forehead and sighed. He couldn’t be this stupid. “Really Breyrian? You know how crazy it is out there and you really went over the ration? You already know the dangers that we face going out there in the world now and you really did this?”

  Breyrian rolled his eyes as if what I said to him was of no importance. “What can I say? I was thirsty man my bad. It was extremely hot that day and you know we get beat down on by the sun everyday. I honestly didn’t think that I drank that much over.”

  “I don’t know if it’s a really good idea,” said Tyleah in her soft voice. “I mean, we know how the whipipo are and I really don’t want to run the risk of dying out there. I’ve seen what they do to people and I’m not prepared for that to happen to me. I think that we should just try to make it until it’s time for us to move again.”

  I looked over at Tyleah. She had come a long way from the broken girl she once was. Her hair had finally start to grow back in the places it fell out in and her brown skin wasn’t as dull as it was anymore. She was looking healthy and I was glad that we were able to help her get back that way. The problem was, she was overly cautious and in a group like this, sometimes it didn’t work too well. “Look Tyleah, I know that you think it’s scary out there. Hell, we all know it’s scary out there but we really can’t hide in here forever. It’s more dangerous to stay and you know that. We have all seen what whipipo can do and that’s what brought us all together and hopefully one day we will be able to stop them but for now we have to survive them. And unfortunately we can’t survive them if we die of thirst so we have to go get what we need. Understand?”

  She nodded her head softly.

  “Look, I’m all for getting the water but we all know that walking ten miles is a killer. Especially with the wild dogs about, acid spills, and the chance of the world literally crumbling at your feet at any moment. We’ve all gotten immune to the heat of the lava but we all know that it will take us out at any given moment,” said Breyrian as he looked at Ahshay and then me.

  I let out a frustrated sigh because everytime we had to go get supplies Breyrian said the same thing. So him saying this was of no big shock to me. “Brey, what did I say whenever you have to open your m
outh?”

  “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say nothing at all. And if I can’t be positive then I don’t need to bring everyone else down,” he mumbled.

  “Exactly! You make this same argument everytime we have to go and it doesn’t change anything. We still have to go. We still have to make sure that the task at hand is complete. We still have to survive. Being negative about it changes nothing so for once cut it out,” I said hoping that this time what I said stuck with him.

  “Yeah, or be prepared to deal with me,” said Ahshay as she held her fist in the air.

  He rolled his eyes. “You don’t scare anybody.”

  She stepped a step closer to him and got in his face. “Well, I should if you know what’s good for you.”

  “Ahshay you must be forgot, I’ve known you since we were kids. You don’t scare me. You didn’t scare me then and you don’t scare me now. So you can save your little threats for someone that it might actually work on.”

  She cocked back her hand and I immediately stepped between them. I knew that she was going to punch him and that’s exactly what Brey wanted so he could play fight with her but now was not the time for all of that. “Not this today alright? I’m really not in the mood to be breaking y’all up. We have to get a move on soon so pack up your stuff and let’s come on. I don’t have time to be dealing with you all. Especially today of all days.”

  They mumbled a few words to themselves and went off to pack their things which wasn’t much. When you lived on the run you could only have so much stuff on you. So therefore, I restricted everybody to one small backpack that we could carry on or backs and wouldn’t weigh us down. It held exactly what we needed in there. Water, some food, a small weapon, and sometimes a first aid kit. I remember when life was actually easy and we could do whatever we wanted but seemed like since ‘the end’ came it only left the crazy whipipo around because none of the ones we had come across cared anything about us. But survival was the key and being not that well off before this definitely taught me the struggle and how to survive. We didn’t have much before all of this started and we didn’t have anything but each other now that it has. I heard footsteps and looked back and saw that they were ready to go. I grabbed my backpack from off of the ground and headed towards the back door and peeped out. I checked to see if any of the NWO soldiers were walking around in the area and there were none so I waved my crew to come on.

  I knew that walking this ten miles was going to be torture without any water. The sun beamed even harder on Earth and was a dark orange that never really ever went down. The moon didn’t even shine anymore and if you were caught out in the dark then you needed to have one of the special guns that we had to rig up because let me tell you the stuff that went bump in the night now, would make your worst nightmare seem like a fairy tale. The animals that adjusted to the way the Earth was now were rabid and monsters. They would attack you without a second thought and were quick. A few members of my dad’s old team had caught by some and it wasn’t a pretty site. Once they set eyes on you, they are ready to kill and that’s why you ave to be prepared at all times with a weapon. During the day, all you had to really fear was the wild dogs. They traveled in packs and would oftentimes jump you to take you down. They only had patches of fur, wild eyes, and foamy mouths. They looked nothing like the cute pets they probably once were. We walked behind the buildings swiftly and carefully to make it to the back road that would lead us to the closest fresh water pond. We couldn’t drink any other water because it was contaminated, but some people did and the side effects weren’t pretty. It placed them in a rabid mindset, almost as if they had the rabies. If they ever got caught close to you then well, let’s just say, you had to do them in before they did you in or it wouldn’t be pretty. You would turn into a rabid person just like they were or you would die if the side effects were too harsh for you. Death to me was the better option.

  We were almost close to the back pathway when we heard some boot steps and immediately stopped. I looked back at my crew and they seemed to be paralyzed with fear. I placed my finger to my lips to ensure that they would stay quiet and peeked around the corner. I saw the NWO soldiers with their white robes on and scarred faces. See, whipipo didn’t take well to the new changes with the heat, so a lot of them looked like the were overcooked. Probably another reason they wanted this black magic. We got darker in this heat, who wouldn’t, but our skin never burned and the rays from the sun were nothing short of friendly as it seemed to be 1000 degrees hotter. They’re faces were red and peeling, along with the rest of their bodies, and it seemed to get worse every year that we survived out here. As I continued to look around the corner I saw that they were beginning to look into the abandoned buildings. After seeing this, it wouldn’t make sense for me and my crew to move yet. It would be a suicide mission with nothing to cover us back here. I heard some slight whimpering and thought that they had found someone in one of the buildings but after a while I quickly figured out that it was coming from someone behind me. I looked back and saw that Leah was the one whimpering. I instantly shot her a glare because she knew that there was no noise to be made while out in the open like this. If they even sensed just a little bit that someone or something was over here we would all be dead.

  She looked apologetic but I still would have to have a strong talk with her if we were to get out of this alive. She was pushing it. Really pushing it and I couldn’t deal with this much more longer. Nor could my crew, our lives were at stake. I had been as patient as I could being that she was new to the crew and was still learning, but this was just common sense at this point. You make noise, or draw attention, you die. Plain and simple and then what good would we be to anyone? I looked back around the corner at the whipipo and they still were searching the abandoned buildings. I heard a loud cry and I knew then that they found someone. I heard cries and whimpers and after a while I saw a scrawny little black boy who had to have been about five or six being dragged to the group that was at the head of the town. I counted about fifteen of them and I knew with my crew we would never be able to take them. I just hoped that they would spare the boy, he wouldn’t be of that much use to them at that age.

  “What do you think about this one sir?” asked one of the whipipo. He was short and kind of pudgy which meant that he was on the low end of the whipipo totem pole. The whipipo had an hierachy as well. The ones that looked “perfect” with the right body and strength were at the top of the pyramid. All of the overweight ones, they made do the grunt work that they didn’t want to do. There was only upper and lower class whipipo, there was no middle.

  The leader of the group stepped forward and scanned the little boy with a scanner that was attached to his wrist. He lifted his arms and inspected his legs. He then yanked his mouth open to check out his teeth in there. After he was finished inspecting the little guy he stepped back . “No, he won’t make it so he won’t be of any use to use for what we’re trying to do.”

  The guy nodded his head and before I could even blink they shot the little boy right in the head. He dropped to the ground in a thud, and the Earth now seeped with his blood. I had to bite back my anger because if I exploded I would risk putting my friends in danger and that was not what I was trying to do.As much as I wished that I could have saved the little boy from that tragic fate, I knew that I couldn’t. Not without getting myself killed in the process as well. After a few more moments the whipipo continued to search but they didn’t find anyone else. They moved on and I held my crew back for a few moments just to be sure that it was okay to move. I didn’t want us to blow our cover.

  “Let’s go,” I said as I looked back a them. I saw the scared and panicked look on their faces but there was no way that we could just sit there like sitting ducks.

  “But,” Tyleah started to say but I cut her off.

  “I said let’s go,” I said more firmly hoping that they all got the message.

  She nodded her head as she followed behind me. My sister a
nd best friend fell in line right after her. After a few minutes of walking in silence Ahshay finally spoke up.

  “You know you could have helped that kid back there,” she said as she looked at me in my eyes.

  I looked at the pain and anger that was etched across her face and pondered how to address it. “How could I have helped him Ahshay without putting you in danger? Had I came from behind that wall do you really think that they would’ve thought that I was the only one hiding back there? No! We all would’ve lost our lives, plus the whipipo outnumbered us significantly,” I said. I knew she would start this and I really didn’t want to hear it. Not after seeing that kid’s lifeless body hit the ground the way that it did. I was the only one who really got a good view of everything going on and didn’t appreciate her criticism when I was just trying to keep us alive.

  “But we’re supposed to be warriors. A resistance. How can we call ourselves that if we’re not helping or people that need it?” she shot back. “It’s all pointless what you’re trying to do if the only ones that you’re looking for is us. More than just us need help from these whipipo. More than us just need to survive. If it’s only ever just going to be us four then we’re never going to accomplish what daddy would have wanted us to.”

  I stopped in my tracks and stepped closer to her face. I needed her to understand exactly where I was coming from. “You know why I’m the leader of this group Ahshay? It’s so that someone actually uses their head and thinks so that we all can still be alive. How can we be a resistance by going into battle unprepared and outnumbered just hoping to make a change? If we’re all dead then how does that help anybody other than them? You should really think about what you’re saying before you open your mouth to speak because it’s obvious you don’t know what it is you’re speaking on. Now shut up and follow behind me because we have a lot of ground to cover if we want to get water before the sun is at its hottest and we die of dehydration before we get there.”